Five feel-good storylines for men’s Olympic golf competition

The Olympic golf qualification structure is meant to build a wide-ranging field of players from across the globe, vying to add to their respective countries’ medal counts in one of the world’s great melting pots of sports and culture.

The 60-player field for the men’s Olympic golf competition is headlined by the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy, but some of this week’s most compelling storylines can perhaps be found a bit further down the world ranking. The 72-hole stroke play event is set for Thursday-Sunday at Le Golf National just outside Paris, with stories like the 31-year-old Swiss pro who spent time as an insurance buyer and nearly a decade on the Challenge Tour, or the TOUR’s first member from Finland who spent two weeks living in a freezing forest while fulfilling military service. That’s the texture of the Olympics, with its wide range of athletic competitions and accompanying journeys to reach this point.

The International Golf Federation (IGF) uses the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) to create the Olympic Golf Rankings (OGR) as a method of determining eligibility. The top 15 world-ranked players are eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Following that, players are eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of up to two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15. This happens until the number of 60 players is reached.

For the third time of the modern era, golf takes the Olympic stage this week. Here are five feel-good storylines to follow at the men’s Olympic golf competition.

1. Camilo Villegas

It hasn’t been an easy road for Villegas, who underwent the most severe heartbreak imaginable in July 2020 as his daughter Mia died at 22 months old after battling tumors on her brain and spine. The Colombian was vulnerable and transparent as he shared his emotions publicly after Mia’s passing, vowing to keep her legacy alive through Mia’s Miracles, which strives to provide “small blessings with large impacts” to children and families in the United States and Colombia.

Despite the trauma, Villegas still believed he had elite golf left in him, and he played a full Korn Ferry Tour schedule in 2023 to keep his game sharp for a potential run at Q-School to regain solid TOUR status. Then he won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last November, his first TOUR win in nine-plus years, to regain exempt TOUR status through 2025 (no Q-School was needed). That victory largely propelled him to a qualifying position for the men’s Olympic golf competition, and the 42-year-old Villegas will make his Olympics debut this week.

Eight years ago, Villegas made the difficult decision to pull out of the Rio Olympics to improve his odds of maintaining his TOUR status. Despite struggles to this point in the 2024 season (he stands No. 194 on the FedExCup), he can now compete at the Olympics without any status consternation, knowing he’s secure on TOUR through 2025. And the five-time TOUR winner who is so beloved back in his home country will don the Colombian colors with pride.

2. Joel Girrbach

Perhaps one of the Olympics’ unlikeliest participants, Girrbach spent time as an insurance buyer before diving into professional golf nearly a decade ago. Now 31, Girrbach has qualified to become the first Swiss male golfer to compete at the Olympics.

Switzerland, home to roughly just 100 golf courses, isn’t known as a breeding ground for professional golfers. But Girrbach, who started playing at age 8 and won the 2011 Swiss Junior, gradually built toward a breakthrough. He played mostly the Challenge Tour (the DP World Tour’s Korn Ferry Tour equivalent) from 2015 to 2023, with 146 starts including a win and five runner-up finishes. Last season, he finished No. 17 on the Challenge Tour’s season-long standings to earn 2024 DP World Tour membership, and he has shown well with five top-20 finishes this season. It proved good enough to earn the final spot in this week’s Olympic field.

Girrbach ranks fourth on the DP World Tour in driving accuracy this season, a skill that could prove paramount at water-infested Le Golf National, which can severely penalize off-line tee shots. He stands No. 372 on the Official World Golf Ranking – which might sound like a long shot until you remember Rory Sabbatini took silver at the Tokyo Olympics after failing to record a top-25 finish in 15 starts prior to the Games, earning a medal for Slovakia with a final-round 61. If you’re in the field, after all, anything can happen.

3. Alejandro Tosti

Tosti first connected with golf in an understated fashion as an elementary schooler in Rosario, Argentina. He and his brother would play around the house with a charcoal stick and ping-pong ball, betting five cents to see who could hole the ball into a backyard drain. This cultivated Tosti’s golf bug, a fascination grew to the point where starting at age 8, he’d ride a bus to the closest nearby course where he could practice – roughly an hour each way. His dad taught him the bus route, and his parents would walk him to and from the bus stop. He hasn’t looked back.

The spirited Tosti (who loves to cook and considers Argentine empanadas his specialty) thrived as a college player at the University of Florida, then won on both PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and the Korn Ferry Tour en route to his first TOUR card for 2024. He entered the TOUR spotlight at this year’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, ultimately finishing in a tie for second, just one back of winner Stephan Jaeger. That showing helped propel him to his first Olympics, where he’ll represent Argentina alongside Emiliano Grillo.

Tosti is a fearless player who wears his heart on his sleeve and relishes the opportunities to compete on golf’s biggest stages, hoping to inspire the next generation of Argentinian golf.

“That kid always dreamed on that bus ride to be able to have a chance to play on the PGA TOUR and now it’s a reality,” Tosti said. “It’s happening, so just enjoy it and try your best.”

An Olympic medal could go a long way toward that cause.

4. Sami Valimaki

Just six years ago, Valimaki lived for two weeks in sub-zero temperatures in a forest while fulfilling his mandatory service in the Finnish military. During that six-month stint, he was allowed to practice golf just once a week. The drills included shooting rifles, and the temperatures dropped as low as -13 F.

“Super, super cold,” Valimaki told the Associated Press in 2020. “That was a rough time.”

Fast forward to 2024 and not only has Valimaki survived, but he has thrived. Last fall he became the first Finnish player to earn a PGA TOUR card, securing dual membership via the top 10 on the 2023 DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai, not otherwise exempt, and he quickly entered the spotlight in his fifth event as a TOUR member with a runner-up finish to Jake Knapp at the Mexico Open at Vidanta.

That finish helped in turn propel Valimaki to Olympic qualification. At just 26 years old, it’s another notch on a resume that includes two DP World Tour wins and two Finnish Tour titles. He’s a global player, and this week marks a global stage.

5. Matthieu Pavon

The Frenchman currently stands No. 23 on the Official World Golf Ranking – in some respects, perhaps he’s playing too well for the “underdog” ethos of this list. But his journey to get here suggests otherwise.

Pavon carries an athletic pedigree – his dad Michel was a longtime professional soccer player, and his mom Beatrice is a golf teaching pro – and he has long carried the requisite self-belief to succeed at the game’s highest level. Yet it has been a gradual process; Pavon turned pro with a relatively light resume in the amateur game, and he gradually climbed the ranks on the Alps Tour, Challenge Tour and DP World Tour – on which he closed the 2023 season finale with four straight birdies to dramatically earn dual TOUR membership via the top 10 on the season-long Race to Dubai, not otherwise exempt. Then he won the Farmers Insurance Open in January, becoming the first French winner on the modern PGA TOUR. It has led him to his Olympics debut – as other Frenchmen were ahead of him for the spots in 2016 and 2021.

Pavon will join his countryman Victor Perez in donning the French colors this week, with the Paris crowd support sure to be on their side. Three years ago, Hideki Matsuyama came so close to medaling in his home country at the Tokyo Olympics (C.T. Pan won a seven-man playoff for bronze that included Matsuyama), and the French contingent will aim to take that next step in home-soil Olympic golf achievement.

A home Olympics is a nice setting for a debut, particularly amidst a resilient journey.